Skills for Work: Understanding the Changing Labour Market
Understanding the Changing Labour Market is a Pearson Skills for Work unit in which learners research local and national jobs, explain what affects the labour market, including supply and demand, technology and education and economic initiatives, assess their own skills and write a career plan with alternatives if their first choice is not available. It is one 10 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. The centre sets and marks the assignment. Digital work sits in researching labour market information and careers websites online, referencing sources, and explaining at Level 2 how technology changes jobs. No criterion requires a digital product.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 10
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Medium
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: state, outline or identify factors that affect the local and national labour market, suggest alternative job options and the skills needed to adapt, and at Entry 3 produce a simple plan showing how career choice and skills could change. The centre sets and marks its own assignment (Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief is optional) and there are no mandatory evidence requirements; work is internally verified and quality assured by a Pearson Standards Verifier. 10 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each level: learners describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) a range of factors affecting the labour market and their impact on their own job choices, and produce a realistic (Level 1) or detailed, personalised (Level 2) career plan showing how they will adapt to changing opportunities. The centre sets and marks its own assignment, with no mandatory evidence requirements, internally verified and quality assured by a Pearson Standards Verifier. 10 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail.
Skills that use Health and well-being
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Explaining how technology changes jobs
Level 2 learners explain the impact of factors such as supply and demand, technology, and local and national education and economic initiatives on the labour market and their own job choices, and Pearson's mapping says the teaching content covers technology and AI impacts on jobs. Lower levels describe or identify factors in general, so technology is one possible factor rather than a requirement below Level 2.
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils list jobs in a supermarket that have changed because of self checkouts and online ordering, and say who gains and who loses.
- Year 8
- Pupils compare how a bank, a garage and a newspaper worked thirty years ago and now, and describe the effect of technology on the jobs in each.
- Year 9
- Pupils research one job that artificial intelligence is changing and explain the effect on the number of jobs and the skills workers now need.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 16, assessment criteria Level 2, page 82; Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 2, page 84; Annexe E, page 129
“the impact of factors such as supply and demand, technology, and local/national education and economic initiatives”
Progression step 3
I can identify the wider positive and negative influences of technology, e.g. on my life, on society, on the environment.
Progression step 4
I can reflect on the role of digital media in my life and habits.
Good to know
- The unit is SfW 16 and is worth 10 guided learning hours, listed under "Developing adaptability and resilience" (Section 3, page 5). The WJEC unit of the same name is 20 guided learning hours.
- A learner achieves the unit once, at one level: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level." (Rules of Combination, page 6). Units and qualifications are graded Pass or Fail (page 7).
- The Pearson qualification numbers run from C00/5473/0 (Entry Level 1 Skills for Work Award) to C00/5474/4 (Level 2 Skills for Work Diploma) (Qualification titles, pages 3 to 4).
- The teaching content is not in the specification: "This can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 83). Pearson's mapping says that content covers "technology and AI impacts on jobs" and Welsh growth industries and data sources (Annexe E, page 129).
- Evidence is flexible: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (page 83), and the self-assessment can be done "e.g. using a template or careers website" (Entry 3, page 83), so internet access helps but is not specified.
- Sources and AI must be acknowledged: learners certify "they have clearly referenced any sources and any artificial intelligence used" and "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them." (page 85). This matters because learners research jobs online.
- Unlike the WJEC unit, Pearson's criteria do not ask learners to judge bias or reliability in sources; instead every level ends in a plan for adapting job choices, and Level 2 needs "realistic short- and long-term goals" (page 84).
- The Skills for Work specification says "Every unit in our Skills for Life qualifications includes an Authorised Assessment Brief" (page 8), a leftover reference to the Skills for Life suite.
Links with other qualifications
The WJEC Skills for Work unit Understanding the Changing Labour Market covers the same subject in 20 guided learning hours with three learning outcomes, and its Level 2 asks learners to judge the bias, accuracy and reliability of labour market information and to look at artificial intelligence, climate change and remote work. Pearson's 10 hour unit is narrower and more personal: learners research factors affecting jobs, complete a skills self-assessment and write a career plan with alternatives, so the digital work is research rather than evaluating sources. Supply and demand and the effect of technology on jobs link with GCSE Business. Within the WJEC Skills Suite, Jobs of the Future, Exploring Career Pathways and Working in Wales cover neighbouring careers ground, and Personal Development Planning also asks for goal setting.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 16: Understanding the changing labour market.